Lost Finds New Office, Licensees

By Mon, Jan 10 2000 2:06 pm | Comments

SHARE:

They’ve found themselves, at least temporarily. The employees of Lost have moved into a new office in Laguna Hills bringing the entire group together under one roof. “It’s like moving from a garage into a normal business,” says Lost CEO Joel Cooper at the Surf Expo trade show in Orlando, Florida.

He says the set-up is much better that what had been going on previously: the employees had been working in two separate buildings across the street from each other in San Clemente. Although moving out of the companyà‚¹s hometown was tough for some of staff, the surfboard manufacturing will stay in SC. The rest of the operations such as sales, administration, and merchandising will take place in the new building. There are also plans to build a skate ramp in the warehouse.

In other news, Cooper was happy to announce that the company has begun to grow its international business by signing two key licensing agreementsà‚†¹one in Australia and another in South Africa.

“Weà‚¹re going to provide the marketing and merchandising direction of the brands still,” he says, but the licensees will handle placing the advertizing in national magazines, production of the clothing lines and surfboards, and handle sales and shipping.

Cooperà‚¹s excited about the commitment the new partners bring to the brand. “The guys in Australia have already spent lots of money promoting the brand and they haven’t even shipped the product yet,” he says.

The next move Lost is hoping to make is to sign a deal with someone in Europe, although thereà‚¹s no rush to make it happen, says Cooper.

At the trade show in Orlando, things business as normal at the Lost booth. The company had brought in about 120 of its trademarked wildly decorated surfboards (up from about 90 at the show last September) and they were pretty much all sold out by the first day. There were tons of groupees hanging out, drinking, watching videos, and overall having a great time.